South Coast Tour -- July 12, 2023
We had a Troll Expeditions 12 hour South Coast and Glacier hike tour booked. I booked it in ISK (Iceland is Islands in Icelandic; Islands Krona), with a credit card without a foreign exchange fee, when the exchange rate was better. I also saw the price in ISK higher closer to the tour.
The tour started with picking up all those on the tour; they offered pickup at various hotels and locations in Reykjavik. Our assigned pickup was the same BSI (bus) Terminal. Since it had multiple sides and Google maps was not finding it well when I was planning, I emailed before to ask exactly where. I sent a Google map picture, and they sent back a different picture with the pick up area highlighted -- near the labeled Luggage Lockers on the Google maps. I felt better since it was an early pick up that I did not want to miss or make them hassle to find us. We were the first picked up at 8am, and the only ones at this location. It was noted that pickup could take 30 minutes. There were many tour groups picking up at the same time/area; Reykjavik Excursions was well represented.
After picking up everyone, the guide gave the day's tour plan. We left the capitol area and headed south. We came upon a geothermal, geyser area. Then the tree on a small island in the river was just cute. First glacier sighting -- up in the mountains. We passed round hay bales that were fully wrapped in thick plastic to survive the winter until needed. Passing Seljalandsfoss that we came back later to visit -- the hike behind the waterfall to be the last stop for those that got too wet. We learned that the 2010 volcano eruption, where the ash blew to Europe and shut down air traffic, gave Iceland a lot of free marketing. People had not heard of Iceland, so the news stories talked about the volcano and showed some waterfall pictures. Iceland is a country of 375,000 people but now gets 2+ million visitors per year.
We arrived at Skógafoss. Foss means waterfall. A small introduction fall before the big one. We went up the steps to the top. The sheep liked to be on the slanting side of the mountain; the grass is always greener on the precarious side of a mountain.
I'm not a good upstairs or uphill climber. I have a lot more to go. They challenged us to find the rainbow.
Wow -- the ocean, mountains, and a rainbow!
The viewing platform at the top of the stairs.
Earlier we got a restroom break (complimentary restrooms) at a gas station and could get lunch for a picnic at the black sands beach. We each got a sandwiches. Travis's ended up with too much mayonnaise and mine was roast beef and grilled onions. It was too bready for me, so I did not eat it all. Travis had some since it had no mayo. We arrived at the black sand beach near the town of Vik. We sat on the rocks for our picnic; this was our view. Then Travis climbed the basalt column, formed from the lava solidifying.
We continued around the basalt columns to find this cool cave and birds flying around the water mountains :). Then seeing something in the water, I got out the binoculars. I found puffin! They were cute, and it was fun to watch them fly and land in the water. Someone on our tour found one nesting in the cliffs above this cave and got a great picture.
We visited the restroom and returned to the bus to head to the glacier.
The glacier is called Sólheimajökull Glacier, and this portion was about 3 hours including gearing up, hiking to and from the glacier, and hiking on the glacier. We received a harness, that was just for emergencies or if they needed to pull someone out of somewhere, crampons (not put on yet), ice axe, and helmet. If you did not have good enough hiking boots (and they were not checking for good tread really, just that it looked like a hiking boot), you had to rent theirs for about 10 EUR. A few people in our group did.
We hiked to this lagoon, which used to be part of the glacier too, and there are icebergs that broke off or calved from the glacier in the lagoon. You will quickly see that glaciers in Iceland are unique; they have glacier ice and volcanic ash combined. Here we learned how to put our crampons. We had a glacier specific tour guide, and our full day tour guide did come to here to help with the crampons before setting us lose on the glacier. Our glacier guide was awesome; I do not remember her name. She said that not many guides were from Iceland, but that our tour guide was a native Icelander. She was from Germany, and this was her first summer guiding in Iceland. The tour company provided the employees housing and a company car, just to use to get to and from work. She normally guided at the big glacier in Iceland, but with us this day. She was later talking about being required to use ropes to save people, if needed. She had to carry all the rope, which explained her big backpack.
The glaciers in Iceland are melting quickly. They estimated to be completely gone in 150 years. The metal V behind Travis is a device that they use to measure the melting just this year. It was very beautiful, so sorry, lots of pictures! Our guide recommended walking wide to not catch the crampons on your pants or boots and to stomp if it felt like you were slipping or not getting great traction. When going back, which was downhill, the recommendation was to lean back. There was a spot at the beginning noted as slippery. I was cautious, but it was not too bad.
He was building a new trail and still working when we came back. With the melting, the glacier is changing frequently. They had a separate in and out trails, but the out was blocked off when we were there. So, a two way traffic system was in place, and we stopped to let the entering tours pass. She noted that she had to find new glacier feature examples to show as it changes. I asked if there was a risk to the ice collapsing when walking, but there was not. There were cracks not to fall into, but I guess it melts from the top, not underneath to collapse.
Travis did the Viking way of drinking the water. It was clean and drinkable. I got to try it just by scooping some up in my hand.
That concluded our glacier hike. It was cooler than the rest of the tour, but not too cold. They recommended a hat under the helmet, so I wore the smart wool little beanie. They also recommended gloves to also help if you need to catch yourself on sharp ice.
Our last stop was Seljalandsfoss. We walked behind it. It was super wet! So, we did not get any pictures from behind. There were a few other waterfalls in the same area and hiking past them.
This was a view of a waterfall from behind. Okay, now we had to hike back quickly. We were not the only ones; there were some ladies jogging too. We wanted to stop by the restroom before our time due back. I did not opt to go before...oops. We were going to be the ones back to the bus late! Travis was faster; I may have made it right on time...but was still the last one :(.
We made the long drive back to Reykjavik. We got back about 8pm, late, but it did not seem like it since it was still light outside. We got off at an earlier drop off to stop at Kronan, another recommended budget grocery store, for dinner. I found an affordable pizza pocket that was better than the previous night's pizza slice.
Next up...
Embarkation NCL Star
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